The Spengler Cup could just as well have been the Stanley Cup for the joyous Canadian team.

Kirby Law and Ryan Keller scored in the second period to lift Canada to a 2-1 victory over Russian club Salavat Yulaev Ufa to win the 81st Spengler Cup tournament on Monday.

The players, mostly NHL cast-offs now skating for European club teams, erupted in celebration as time wound down on Canada's first win at the annual Christmas-week event since 2003.

— The Canadian Press

Normally I make a point to catch a few games of the Spengler tournament over the holidays, but I frankly didn't see a minute of this year's event.

There was a bit more added intrigue for the Canadian side, with Curtis Joseph in goal and Doug Gilmour on the bench as an assistant coach, and it's nice to see a few unheralded former NHLers get a bit of the spotlight.

Team Canada's roster included Cujo and Sebastien Caron in goal, Mark Giordano, Yannick Tremblay, Danny Syvret and Shawn Heins on defence, and Serge Aubin, Ramzi Abid, former Kamloops star Hnat Domenichelli, Simon Gamache, J.P. Vigier, Marty Murray and Travis Green.

Players of note from other teams in the tournament included Janne Niinimaa, Alexandre Daigle, Juraj Kolnik, Dan LaCouture, Erik Westrum (HC Davos), Oleg Tverdovsky, Alexander Perezhogin, Igor Grigorenko, Stanislav Chistov (Ufa), Dan McGillis, Sven Butenschon, Rene Corbet, Rico Fata and Jeff Shantz (Mannheim).

Tim Wharnsby has some words of congratulation for Canadian head coach Sean Simpson. Paul Romanuk's been covering the tournament on his website.